VGT TOURNAMENT IN REVIEW

2020 Summer Tour: VGT Players Championship – 36 HOLE

Ledgeview GC / Sandpiper Golf Course
May 14-15th

What a fun tournament that was over the last couple of days at Ledgeview and Sandpiper. The weather co-operated and the players were treated to some excellent conditions both days!

Our Player’s Championship conducts 2 separate events.  A 36-hole Championship for Pros & elite Amateurs (5.0 & less) and an 18-Hole  Championship for players 5.1 to 18.0 (A&B Flight). 

First off, the A and B Flight players played an 18-hole event on Thursday out at Ledgeview Golf Club. The course was in great shape, and as always, the short and tricky layout was a challenge for the players.

Our low score in Flight A was Jim Zalusky who carded a great score of 72 on the par 70 layout.   Flight B overall gross was taken by Craig Brown with a score of 79 (+9).

The Pros and Championship Flight played a 2-day, 36 hole event the Player’s Championship with the first round at Ledgeview Golf Club and the second round at Sandpiper Golf Course.

On round one Ledgeview held up well against our players with only 8 Pros and 2 champ flight players shooting under par. Marine Drive’s Chris Crisologo led the way after day 1 with a 6-under par 64. Ledgeview’s own Luke Bogdan (66) and Cheam Mountain’s Kevin Stinson (65) were the closest competitors and would round out the final group at Sandpiper.

Day two out at Sandpiper Resort Golf Course was full of low scores. Swan-E-Set Bay Resort’s Steve Knotts made the best bounce back of the tournament.  After his round of 80 at Ledgeview, he ripped off a round of 66 (-6) early on in the morning, giving a glimpse of the low scores that were out there to be had for the Pros. While the final group was rounding the turn, Langley Golf Center’s James Allenby was laying down the gauntlet like he has done so often before on the VGT. Allenby was -6 heading into the par 5, 15th, sitting 3 back of leader Crisologo who was -3 on the day and -9 overall. When his putt went in, Allenby’s eagle on the 15th pushed him to -8 for the round, and tournament and only 1 back of the leader.

The final group of Crisologo, Stinson, Bogdan seemed to stall on the back 9 allowing a bit of pressure to be applied from the chase group. Ultimately, the steady play of Crisologo was enough as Allenby bogied 18 to finish with a seven under 65 and -7 for the tournament.  Meanwhile, Capilano’s Kevin Spooner had 2 of the steadiest days of the event, carding 67,68 and tying Allenby at -7. But it was Chrisologo who prevailed, closing with a final round 69 and a 2-day total of 9-under par to win by two over Allenby and Kevin Spooner. This was the first career Professional win for the 23-year old Crisologo, making his SFU Golf Program and Marine Drive Golf Club Membership proud.

After day one, our Amateur field was led by Northview’s Bailey Bjornson with a score of 67 (-3) at Ledgeview. Richmond Country Club’s Mike Aizawa was the only other Champ Flight player under par with a 68 on day one and would go into round 2 just one back. Playing in one of his first few VGT tournaments, Bjornson held on down the stretch and fired a 1 over 73 to capture his first VGT Amateur Title.  Northview’s Jackson Jacob made a strong push with a one under par final round to finish just one back of Bjornson. The 2-time VGT Amateur Order of Merit Champion Aizawa would finish 2-shots off the pace after a closing round of 74.

In VGT’s Women’s Division, Meadow Gardens’ Euna Han prevailed with rounds of 70, 69 (-3) to win by 6 shots over Professional Karishma Thiagaraj, who had the lowest score amongst the females with a second round 68.  Marine Drive’s Nonie Marler finished in a tie for 2nd with two very consistent rounds of 73,72 (145).

Special thanks goes out to our host golf courses of this year’s Player’s Championship, Ledgeview Golf Club and Sandpiper Course.  Both courses were in fabulous shape and their grounds crews should be commended. As always, continued thanks to all our sponsors, in particular our Tour Title sponsor IGA Stores of BC and our Order of Merit Sponsor Srixon Golf/Cleveland Golf Canada for their continued support.

As always, we want to thank our team of volunteers as well for the long hours put in to make the tournament a success.  Thank-you for making this year’s Player’s Championship a huge success! 

See you all at the next event! 

Taylor Seidel
Assistant Director of Tournament Operations
Vancouver Golf Tour (VGT)

EVENT RESULTS